– by Sigrid van Roode – The young man looked at me hesitantly. “Well, I don’t know….” he said. “I’ll have to ask my grandfather, but he’s praying right now. Would you like some more tea?” Three glasses of hot sweet tea later, his grandfather entered the tiny shop in Cairo, Egypt’s Khan el-Khalili market where I sat, surrounded by old and vintage silver jewellery. We exchanged greetings and pleasantries, shared some more tea, and eventually settled on a price for the bracelet I wanted to buy ..read more

Distant Doctors: A Surgical Theater in Romania – By Cristina A. Pop – Someone has a fondness for purple decor, I decide, as I look around the examination room at a gigantic poster of blooming irises, a mauve plastic cover atop the gynecological table, and a vase of artificial lilac cuttings on the windowsill. No need to look further: sitting at a desk covered in patient paperwork, the doctor sports a lavender gown ..read more

Ritual Shrine Offerings Among the Exotic Nacirema Tribe While it may seem that anthropologists have documented the most exotic rituals across the globe, the strangest rituals are still yet to be documented by scientists in the exotic tribe of the Nacirema. The strange beginnings of the exotic Nacirema tribe have been documented by Tocqueville (1835), and intimate body rituals have been documented by Miner (1956), but no scientist has brought to light the strangest worship ritual of any tribe on the planet ..read more

I lived many years in Thailand where a subject of fascination for outsiders is the “sex industry.”  I have of course known many people who were involved at various levels, but have never turned much of an ethnographic eye toward the subject.  Until now.  Thanks to the interests Petra Lemberger, a MA student at Chiangmai University in Thailand, I recently with her published an article “Thailand’s Sex Entertainment: Alienated Labor and the Construction of Intimacy” in Social Sciences.  ..read more

Thailand’s most famous and beloved writer– Rong Wongsawan’s work has been translated, edited and published in English for the first time. For admirers of Thailand and its culture, you can now get a glimpse of California culture through the writing and ethnography of Thailand’s most famous ‘man of the people’ for the first time in English.Working really hard on the YouTube channel. If you want to help please subscribe here: Laurelin the Other ..read more

Greetings Ethnography.com aficionados! My previous post “What Happens if Chinese Smartphones Teach English Lessons in Tanzania?” is now on Youtube. Keeping up with the times, Tony and I will be working together so that Ethnography.com articles will be in video format along with the transcription here on Ethnography.com. Please subscribe to Laurelin the Other– the Other meaning, the Ethnographer. Hit that like button and leave a comment on Youtube ..read more

‘Rong Wongsavun (1932-2009) was a prolific Thai author and photographer who began publishing in the 1950s, continuing until he passed away in 2009.  Throughout his life spent writing, he claimed to never age beyond age 28, which is why he always signed his name as “Young Man!”.  Hugely popular with Thai readers during his lifetime, his work is now, for the first time, being published in English.  The Man From Bangkok: San Francisco Culture in the 60s, first printed in 1978 is about his travels in California, and has now been published by White Lotus Press of Thailand.  ..read more

English is the dominant global language of the world, it is the language of power, and control. But it is not the only language, and different people have different levels of command over the use of the same language. It is interesting to watch how this happens, often in unexpected ways, for example by the arrival of Chinese cell phones here in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. I recently bought the cheapest smartphone I could find, when it seemed my primary phone had been burned by excess voltage coming out of the electrical sockets in rural Tanzania ..read more

Guest Column The Two Hands of Washington’s Myanmar Policy Reposted from: https://www.irrawaddy.com/opinion/guest-column/the-two-hands-of-washingtons-myanmar-policy.html –By TONY WATERS 28 September 2022 One day a civilian government will assume power in Myanmar and the United States will come back promising security, democracy, human rights and free trade. The return is likely to happen much as it did after 2011, when as described in Erin Murphy’s new book Burmese Haze, a triumphal US State Department arrived in Naypyitaw with planeloads of people and gifts, claiming credit for “midw ..read more

Last June, I published an article about the role of the CIA in the post-World War II world order.  I rather liked it,  but no one seems to read it!  So here’s a link, so that anyone who follows Ethnography.com might check it out! This post is mainly though to get myself re-engaged with Ethnography.com, and perhaps you too.  We have had several excellent submissions posted since just 2020 from Tunisia, Madagascar, Dominica, Tanzania, and India. And then there is another post about displacement of COVID.   More would be nice!  I actually enjoy editing these off ..read more